Zao is life
Well-Known Member
Samuel was not in his body when he was summoned from the grave - and I specifically mentioned the fact that scripture tells us that when the body dies, the souls of those who died in Christ, will be with Christ - and He is in the bosom of the Father:
No they do not have bodies. That's not what the passage says. Revelation 19:8 tells you what the white robes symbolize - they are not "literal" robes
- and the fact that they had been slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held, and are told to rest "yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled"
- tells you why John - in a vision - saw those souls under the altar. John was seeing visions. Visions are like dreams - they are not literal and if you take the Revelation up that literally, then you have got lost before you started.
There is also only one day when (as Jesus and Paul and other apostles told us) ALL in the graves will hear His voice and will come forth to the resurrection of the dead and the judgment seat of Christ. The Bible does not contradict itself.
The biblical truth is that God created human beings with A (one) body, A (one) soul, and A (one) spirit. The soul and spirit do not each have their own bodies. The resurrection of the dead is the day all souls will be reunited with their resurrected bodies, and will come before God for the judgment of Christ - and scripture speaks of only ONE day in which this will occur, not two or multiple days separated by 10 X 100 years or more.
Lazarus was raised from the dead by Jesus - just like the young girl "whose spirit came again" when Jesus raised her from the dead, and what Jesus said in your above reference was in a parable.
Scripture does not tell us whether or not after having been raised from the dead Lazarus and the girl and others who were raised by Jesus - and later those who were raised from the dead by the apostles - died again, or simply vanished. What was important to the apostles and Luke who wrote the records, was the fact that Jesus had power to raise the dead.
Though they may be bodily present in heaven, none of the people you mention are dwelling in unapproachable light - which is in the presence of God - a.k.a heaven or the third heaven (or whatever level it is where God dwells).
You need to balance the assumptions you make with ALL scripture - beginning with the scripture that tells us that Christ alone dwells (bodily) in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see (1 Timothy 6:16); and the scripture that tells us that no man has seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him. (John 1:18).
Not in the third heaven - or in the place of the light which no man can approach unto. Only Christ dwells there - and He has been dwelling there, bodily, ever since His ascension - interceding for us and for all the others you mention in your list.
No they do not. They are before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes (AGAIN, THE WHITE ROBES which symbolize what Revelation 19:8 tells you they symbolize - and this is another vision), and palms in their hands.
Every time God's throne is mentioned in New Testament scripture it's mentioned in connection with the judgment seat of Christ - because God's judgment is as much a part of who God is, as His grace - and these are saved multitudes whom John sees in a vision because their names are written in the Lamb's book of life.
Besides the fact that you have forgotten the fact that John is seeing visions that represent realities and should not be taken literally, you have betrayed the fact that you did not make the effort to read diligently to the end of chapter 7. If you did, you would have heard the very same promises being made to those in verse 7 that is being made to those who dwell in New Jerusalem
- which John saw coming down from God out of heaven to the earth in the new heavens and new earth:
"Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sits on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."
It's talking about their experience on the earth in the new heavens and new earth.
Israel's judges appointed by God will be governing us - those who had been martyred will be governing us.
How many tribes of Judah (the Jews) are there in the 12 tribes of Israel?
Did Paul identify himself in Romans 11:1 as of the Jews? Or as of one of the 12 tribes?
It's only out of ignorance that anyone calls the twelve tribes of Israel "the Jews".
10 of the 12 tribes ceased being a nation before God (they ceased being a chosen nation before God) in circa 720 BC and were exiled, becoming assimilated with Gentiles and their descendants intermarrying with the Gentiles. You could have Israelite DNA in your ancestry without even knowing it. The restoration of all 12 tribes of Israel takes place in Christ
= no one, Jew or Gentile, who rejects Christ is one of the 12 tribes of Israel mentioned in Revelation 12. God's first promise to Abraham was that he would become the father of a multitude of Gentile nations. God repeated the promise three times when He promised it.
Jacob (Israel), on his death-bed told Joseph that the seed of his son Ephraim would become the fullness of the Gentiles - and Ephraim is the name by which the prophets collectively called the 10 tribes of Israel which were broken off from being a chosen nation before God - or even a nation - after 720 BC. Their restoration is in Christ, and has nothing to do with anyone's ancestral DNA - because God promised Abraham that he would become the father of many Gentile nations.
There will be no mortals left alive (scripture does not contradict itself), and scripture never said WE will ALL be ruling and reigning over anyone - It is the Israelites who the Israelite judges were ruling over / governing after they crossed the Jordan into the promised land.
Only those who have been called - the category of whom is named in scripture - will be ruling - like the Israelite judges - over YOU (you being a part of one of the 12 tribes of Israel, in Christ).
THEY will be governing YOU. YOU and I and @ewq1938 and anyone else who has ever lived in this fantasy of reigning "over mortals" will discover that most of us will not be ruling over anyone - unless you fall into the category of those who are called to rule, and that is the way you meet your death. Some of them went through the most gruesome, gruesome torture and did not deny Christ - so do not be so quick to believe or to hope that you will be among the group of resurrected immortal saints ruling over all the others.
If you do not become part of the judges group, then make sure you do not take part in the rebellion of immortals at the close of the first thousand years of the ages of the ages - because God is able to devour us - body and soul, with fire coming down from God out of heaven - while you are alive and cannot die. Jesus called Gehennah a place where "their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched".
Your belief in mortals being ruled over in the millennium comes from the same false teaching that influenced the eschatology of pretribulation-rapturism (which is yet another ism).
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